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Finding the Ward family's treasures lost in Superstorm Sandy

The Ward family home was wrecked by Superstorm Sandy in Normandy Beach, N.J. The three-story dwelling was not just a house to Joseph and Ellin Ward, their 11 children and 24 grandchildren.
It was an escape from the bustle of daily life in northern New Jersey, a vault for family relics, a matchmaking service and, for 50 years, witness to the big and small moments in the lives of the Wards.

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Finding the Ward family's treasures lost in Superstorm Sandy

The Ward family home was wrecked by Superstorm Sandy in Normandy Beach, N.J. The three-story dwelling was not just a house to Joseph and Ellin Ward, their 11 children and 24 grandchildren.
It was an escape from the bustle of daily life in northern New Jersey, a vault for family relics, a matchmaking service and, for 50 years, witness to the big and small moments in the lives of the Wards. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Jack Ward looks through the debris during demolition of his mother's house, which served as a hub for the Ward children and their friends. More than 20 people shared two bathrooms and five bedrooms every summer for five decades. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Jack Ward walks through the remains of the family home. For the Ward family, the loss of the ranch-style house was more than just the loss of brick and mortar. It was the loss of a lifestyle that hearkened to the Jersey Shore of yesteryear, when generations of the same families spent every summer in the same town. Children played every day in the same plot of sand by the water and visited the same ice cream shop every night. Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Kathryn Ward holds a photo recovered by family members. Every year, the family gathered for a group photo that would go into their Christmas card, this one from the summer of 1975. Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Ellin Ward, 86, reads love letters written to her by her husband, Joseph. The letters were lost during Superstorm Sandy and found their way back to Ellin via a Facebook page called "Hurricane Sandy's Lost Treasures." Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Ellin lived in an upper-middle-class section called Normandy Beach. She moved there full-time in 1994 after her husband died because that's where her family had always been the happiest. Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

A box of report cards and records was found in the home. In the months after the storm, the siblings found items they didn't know their mother had, such as scrapbooks belonging to their father and grandfather that held newspaper articles on historical events. The clippings included news about the shootings of Presidents McKinley and President Kennedy, the sinking of the Titanic and the progress of World War II. They found their late grandfather's leather wallet, complete with his driver's license, a pass for the New York City subway and his Amsterdam Democrat card. Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Bob Ward leafs through a scrapbook that belonged to his grandfather in his Washington home. The scrapbook is full of WWII articles he personally recovered from the destroyed home. Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Ellin and Joseph Ward began taking their children to Normandy Beach in 1961 at the suggestion of family friends in Montclair, N.J., where they lived. They'd been married 10 years by then. Ellin was an elementary school teacher, and Joseph was a forensic engineer who would become internationally known for his work. Eileen Blass, USA TODAY